French lawmakers approve same-sex marriage bill

By Laura Smith-Spark, CNN

Updated 1221 GMT (1921 HKT) April 24, 2013

Photos: Protests over gay marriage bill32 photos

Protests over France's same-sex marriage bill – Protesters stand in the street as they face riot police on Sunday, May 26, in Paris on the sidelines of demonstrations against a gay marriage law legalizing same-sex marriage and adoptions for gay couples. President Francois Hollande signed the measure into law on May 18 following months of bitter debate and demonstrations, including a suicide at Notre Dame Cathedral in the name of protesting same-sex marriage.

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Protests over France's same-sex marriage bill – Protesters gather and sit on the ground as riot police surround them on May 26. Tens of thousands marched through Paris today to protest the law.

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Protests over France's same-sex marriage bill – Protesters stand in a cloud of tear gas on May 26.

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Protests over France's same-sex marriage bill – Riot police stand in a line facing protesters on May 26.

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Protests over France's same-sex marriage bill – Police clash with and arrest protesters on May 26.

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Protests over France's same-sex marriage bill – Riot policemen face off with protesters on May 26.

Protests over France's same-sex marriage bill – Opponents of the law demonstrate in front of the headquarters of the Grand Orient de France, a Masonic order, in Paris on Friday, May 24.

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Protests over France's same-sex marriage bill – A member of the FEMEN feminist activist group with writing on her chest reading "May fascists rest in hell" is arrested by police officers after taking part in a protest at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris on Wednesday, May 22. The protesters were demonstrating against the suicide of a far-right activist inside the cathedral the previous day.

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Photos: Protests over France's same-sex marriage bill – French police stand outside Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral on Tuesday, May 21, following the evacuation of the cathedral after a man shot himself dead in front of the altar. Historian and writer Dominique Venner killed himself in front of horrified tourists after denouncing same-sex marriage and immigration.

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Protests over France's same-sex marriage bill – People holding rainbow flags attend the event Concert pour tous! (Concert for all!) on May 21 at Place de la Bastille square in Paris. The concert was a countermovement in reference to the French anti-gay marriage movement Manif pour tous (Demonstration for all), and celebrated the legalization of same-sex marriage.

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Protests over France's same-sex marriage bill – Bare-chested men wearing white masks, members of anti-gay group Hommen, shout slogans as they are detained in a police bus during a demonstration against a bill legalizing same-sex marriages on May 17 in Paris.

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Protests over France's same-sex marriage bill – Members of groups opposing same-sex marriage gather on Thursday, May 16, in front of the Sorbonne in Paris.

Protests over France's same-sex marriage bill – Supporters cheer in front of the Paris City Hall on April 23. If the measure is enacted, France would be the ninth country in Europe to allow same-sex marriage.

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Protests over France's same-sex marriage bill – People unfurl a rainbow banner in Toulouse on April 23 after the lower house vote.

Protests over France's same-sex marriage bill – People yell in support of the new law Sunday in Bastille Square.

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Protests over France's same-sex marriage bill – Members of the anti-gay marriage group Hommen demonstrate on Saturday, April 20, in Rennes, France. The group was created in response to Femen, a feminist group that organizes topless protests for social issues.

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Protests over France's same-sex marriage bill – The group Hommen gathers in Rennes to protest the bill on Saturday.

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Story highlights

Opponents of the measure file a challenge with France's Constitutional Council

National Assembly approves a same-sex marriage bill by a 331-to-225 vote

The issue of same-sex marriage also polarizes the United States and other nations

Lawmakers in New Zealand and Uruguay are the latest to back same-sex marriage

French lawmakers voted to legalize same-sex marriage Tuesday, despite vocal protests from some conservatives opposed to the step.

The nation's lower house approved a marriage bill, which would also give same-sex couples the right to adopt, in a 331-to-225 final vote.

They cast their votes after impassioned speeches by lawmakers for and against the legislation.

President Francois Hollande, who pledged his support for same-sex marriage on the campaign trail last year, will have to sign the bill before it becomes law.

After Tuesday's lower house vote, a group of senators filed a legal challenge with the country's Constitutional Council, according to a statement published on the UMP conservative opposition party's senate website.

The measure had been expected to pass Tuesday since the left, which includes Hollande's governing Socialist Party, dominates the National Assembly, or lower house. The legislation was approved in the Senate earlier this month.

If the measure is enacted, France would be the ninth country in Europe to allow same-sex marriage.

Protesters on Sunday joined the latest in a series of marches through Paris against the measure, and they have vowed to carry on the fight.

One of the groups behind the marchers urged protesters to rally again Tuesday evening and is planning more demonstrations around the country next month.

Policing has been stepped up in the streets around the lower house in case demonstrations by those for and against the bill become heated, CNN affiliate BFM-TV reported.

In France, the contentious debate over the same-sex marriage bill has coincided with a spike in reported incidents of homophobic abuse, the gay rights group SOS Homophobie told BFM-TV last week.

A gay bar in Lille was targeted Wednesday night by four men who appeared to belong to a far-right group, Interior Minister Manuel Valls said Thursday, in a statement condemning the attack.

Valls also condemned violence that broke out Thursday evening at a march against same-sex marriage, when "organized groups" refused to disperse and clashed with police.

France is committed to upholding the right of all people to demonstrate peacefully, he said.

International debate

Passage of the divisive bill will admit France to a small but growing club.

Lawmakers in New Zealand last week made it the first country in the Asia Pacific region to legalize same-sex marriage. The law is set to be enacted later this year.

If the laws in New Zealand, Uruguay and France are enacted as expected, the count of nations allowing same-sex marriage will rise to 14.

The first same-sex couples walked down the aisle in the Netherlands in 2001, with others following suit in Canada, South Africa, Belgium and Spain. Argentina was the first Latin American nation to legalize such marriages, in 2010.

Legislators in the United Kingdom are also weighing proposals to legalize same-sex marriage.

However, many countries remain split over the issue.

In the United States, the question went before the Supreme Court last month, and justices are now deliberating over the matter.

Nine states and the District of Columbia issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, including three states -- Maryland, Washington, and Maine -- where voters approved it in ballot initiatives last year. Many states have specific laws blocking same-sex couples from legally marrying.

Lawmakers in Australia voted against a bill to legalize same-sex marriage last September. A poll for the advocacy group Australian Marriage Equality indicated that 64% of those surveyed "support marriage equality."

A law legalizing civil unions was introduced in 1999 in France under a previous Socialist government.

Known in France as the PACS, or pacte civil de solidarite, the civil union agreement can be entered into by same-sex or straight couples and confers many but not all of the rights of marriage.